Issue - meetings

Please note the following documents will be published as a supplement:

·         Declarations of interest flow chart (revised version).

·         Draft Glossary

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The Monitoring Officer explained that following the previous meeting when the Committee had considered the LGS Mode of Conduct and Members had provided feedback and input to areas of the Council’s previous code which should remain in the new code and the Committee’s attention was drawn to the proposed amendments to the LGA Code which would fit better for the Council’s local purposes.  The Monitoring Officer had prepared a further draft for Members to consider.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the supplement published entitled proposed additions to code of conduct document, a table which set out every single proposed change to the LGA Model Code and since a request to the LGA a word document of the Model Code of Conduct had been received and the proposed changes had been incorporated into the tracked document (highlighted in red) and a clean copy of the document had also been published.

The Monitoring Officer presented a revised flow chart which set out the process for declaration of interests.

The Monitoring Officer presented the proposed amendments to the Model Code highlighted in red on the tracked changes document.

The proposed changes/comments put forward by Members of the Committee set out below were agreed:

·         Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination – add “behaviour likely to cause offence, etc.”

·         Monitoring Officer to research if there was an available definition for the public interest test.

·         9.2 Interests – remove and/or the Council’s interest, remove reference to impartial.

·         12 – Disclosure of other interests – remove and/or the Council’s interest.

Councillor Nash requested that it be recorded in the minutes that he asked for a definition on the public interest test for the purpose of the Model Code of Conduct.

The Monitoring Officer explained that the complaints handling guidance/sanctions would be reviewed and presented to the Standards Committee at a future meeting.

The Committee was advised that the LGA had a training induction pack would be rolled out to all Borough and Parish/Town Councils.

The Monitoring Officer advised that a further meeting would be required towards the end of January in order that the recommendations could be considered by Cabinet on 7 February and to Full Council on 23 February 2023 for adoption.

RESOLVED: 1) The declarations of interest flow chart be published with all Council agendas with immediate effect.

2) Behaviours/Bullying, etc. – add work behaviour likely to cause offence to make clear the objective test.

3) The Monitoring Officer to research if there was an available definition for the public interest test.

4) Amendments set out above be incorporated into the Model Code of Conduct document.

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The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that the purpose of the report was to place before Members the Local Government Association’s (“LGA”) Model Code of Conduct, plus supporting guidance, for the Committee to consider adoption of the Code in whole or in part along with the connected guidance.

The Monitoring Officer explained that it was anticipated that the new Code of Conduct and guidance would be adopted by Full Council in April 2023 and be available for the Member’s induction following the May 2023 elections.

The Monitoring Officer provided context to the report and commented that the Borough Council’s Independent Person was also an Independent Person for a number of other local authorities include Tower of Hamlets and City of London and it was noted that the Borough Council a higher number of complaints than those other councils and highlighted that the Council needed to take stock of this and provided an overview of the role of the Standards Committee and Monitoring Officer to promote high standards of conduct.

The Committee was invited to consider the LGA Model Code of Conduct and guidance.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the key issues and options considered as set out in the report.

The Monitoring Officer explained that if the Council was to adopt the LGA Model Code of Conduct there were a number of provisions within the current Code which were worth maintaining.

Respect

Within the Council’s current Code but was expanded in the LGA code and the model code gave a behaviour with commentary and was backed up by guidance which provided an understanding of what was expected by Councillors and also assisted the Monitoring Officer when assessing conduct – generally, the model code provided commentary, content and context around what was meant by that behaviour.

Disclosure of Interests

Complicated in terms of what was proposed in the Model Code and was moving away from what had previously been adopted by the Council.  The new code was introducing different classes of interests.  It was noted that the Council had always had pecuniary interests but there was work to be undertaken particularly around how Members dealt with other interests that weren’t pecuniary interests as there was a lack of understanding on when to declare an interest.  A training session would be scheduled when required.

The Monitoring Officer provided a summary of the key changes, a summary of which is set out below

Confidentiality

Included in the Member/Officer Protocol but not included in the Borough Council’s current Code of Conduct and consideration to be given to including confidentiality in the new Code of Conduct.

Disrepute

Included in the Member/Officer Protocol but not included in the Borough Council’s Code of Conduct.  A number of councils had included this provision of bringing the Council into disrepute in its code of conduct and it might be worth looking at whether the Council wished to bring the concept into its Code of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6